Written by

Jamie Samuelsen

Detroit Free Press Special Writer

Jamie Samuelsen, co-host of the “Jamie and Wojo” show at 6 p.m. weekdays on WXYT-FM (97.1), blogs for freep.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. You can reach him at jamsam22@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter @jamiesamuelsen and read more of his opinions at freep.com/jamie.

Should the Detroit Pistons stick with John Loyer the rest of the season or find a new coach now (such as Lionel Hollins)?

The first and easiest response to the Pistons coaching question is – honestly, does it really matter?

In the past decade, the Pistons have dismissed everything from Hall of Fame coaches (Larry Brown) to retreads (Maurice Cheeks) to total head-scratchers (John Kuester). If Cheeks can’t coach this team, can we honestly expect John Loyer to have any more success in his first NBA head-coaching gig? If Loyer goes, would Lionel Hollins or George Karl succeed in this toxic environment?

Here’s the more important question. After watching what happened to Cheeks, who was fired after just 50 games, why would any coach want to take this job? With all due respect to Loyer and his 11 years of service as an NBA assistant, he may be the most qualified candidate who would even take Joe Dumars’ call at this point.

The Pistons are in an odd dilemma. They’re very much in the playoff race in the awful Eastern Conference. They have a roster with enough talent to finish in the middle of the pack of the eight playoff teams. And they have zero chance of getting past Indiana or Miami in the postseason. It begs the question: How does it benefit this team to even make the playoffs in the first place?

The answer: It doesn’t.

They’d lose their first round pick to Charlotte thanks to Dumars’ emergency parachute trade to send Ben Gordon’s contract packing. They’d get the disadvantage of playing home playoff games in front of nothing but empty seats and the embarrassment of having television cameras broadcasting it to the nation. And it might just fool owner Tom Gores into thinking that actual progress is being made and that he should stay on the current course.

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The Pistons are a disaster right now in every way. They barely register a pulse in this town. They’ve turned into a league-wide joke for the way they go through coaches. They have contracts with players such as Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings that looked bad the moment they were signed. And one of the supposed cornerstones of this organization is Greg Monroe, who also happens to be the lone trading chip on the roster.

And one has to wonder just how valuable a chip Monroe actually is in a league that gets more and more nervous to make trades at the deadline. Perhaps Monroe can garner a draft pick in return. And perhaps that draft pick can mitigate the fact that the Pistons will lose their top pick to the Bobcats if they make the playoffs. And if that doesn’t get Pistons fans excited, well, frankly, I don’t know what will!

Loyer seems like a good man and an energetic, positive coach. Those who know him rave about him. But I do think too much was made of his first win on Monday night. Teams often respond to a coaching change with an inspired effort. And the San Antonio Spurs weren’t exactly at full strength with Manu Ginobili, Tiago Splitter and Kawhi Leonard all missing due to injury. But the game did show what happens when this roster plays hard and plays together. If Loyer can maintain that, this team will make the playoffs almost by default. That’s how bad the Eastern Conference is this year.

Should Loyer keep the job? The best answer I can give is, why not? That’s what the Pistons have driven us to over the past five years. If Hollins or Karl got the job, they’d inevitably be fired simply because their message wasn’t resonating or the players weren’t responding. I’ve long contended that this roster needs to change before any coach can succeed. And the best way for that to happen is for the team to bottom out and play the NBA lottery. But that’s a virtual impossibility. And that’s where we are in Pistons nation.

Even when Joe Dumars doesn’t want to fire a coach, he ends up firing a coach. And even when the Pistons have a chance to win, the fans end up losing. If that’s not a marketing slogan for this moribund team, I don’t know what is.